The Discovery of an Active Wind from the Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

2025/09/12 by Mark Gorski, Gorski, Mark D., E. M. Murchikova +2 · 1 voice
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Relativity and Gravitational Theory

paper · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ae63cf

openalex publication_date 2026/06/04 · openalex created_date 2026/06/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/05

Abstract

Abstract Every large galaxy has a black hole in its center. The interaction between the black hole and its host profoundly shapes galactic evolution and the Universe as a whole. The key features of this interaction are black hole jets—or more generally, winds—which every black hole must have. Despite the proximity and importance of our Galaxy’s central black hole, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the active wind from it has eluded scientists for over half a century. Here we report the discovery of a large active wind from Sgr A* using unprecedentedly deep ( T b ∼ 30 mK) and high angular resolution (≲0 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext>″</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:math> 25) observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA). We detect a large conical clearing in the cold molecular gas surrounding Sgr A* that is at least 1 parsec long and has a ∼45° opening angle. The morphology and energetics of this structure are consistent with active clearing of gas by a hot wind from Sgr A*.

Citations

• The Astropy Project: Building an Open-science Project and Status of the v2.0 Core Package^*
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• The CO-to-H₂ Conversion Factor
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• Galactic Winds
• Overionized plasma in the supernova remnant Sagittarius A East anchored by XRISM observations
• Hot Accretion Flows Around Black Holes
• The CO-to-H₂ conversion factor in the Milky Way's central parsec
• Interstellar medium phases and abundances in the central parsec: A JWST MIRI/MRS view of the Galactic center
• Universal Radial Scaling of Large-Scale Black Hole Accretion for Magnetically Arrested And Rocking Accretion Disks
• You Shall Not Pass! The propagation of low/moderate powered jets through a turbulent interstellar medium
• Overionized plasma in the supernova remnant Sagittarius A East anchored by XRISM observations
• Superluminal proper motion in the X-ray jet of Centaurus A
• Peering through the veil: near-infrared photometry and extinction for the Galactic nuclear star cluster

Discussions

• Here is the published version and archive versions of our paper: The Discovery of an Active Wind from the Milky Way’s Central Black Hole doi.org/10.3847/2041... arxiv.org/pdf/2509.10615 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]

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